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This texte is a part of a case study:
The impact of software in the success of an e-learning project.

bsoco : You are one of the European e-learning leaders and yet still not listed on the stock exchange alike most of your American competitors. How would you explain it?

Jérôme Bruet : It is correct and entirely related to our will to focus our whole energy on technical and pedagogical innovation. We have often been solicited by financial companies who would like to accompany our development, but the success of our company and with all the more reason of our software, results from a large freedom in terms of innovation and business model. We intend to maintain this independence which is the core of the culture of e-doceo.

bsoco : You publish a large range composed of authoring tools, a rapid learning tool and an LMS. Can you enlighten us on the importance of each type of software in a project? Is the LMS the key element?

Jérôme Bruet : We offer a solution in SaaS mode within which our customers can enable the features that will meet their needs. On these grounds we cover with a high level of features the entire e-learning requirements, from creation (rapid learning, e-learning, serious game, tutorial, interactive video) to publishing. But we do not restrict ourselves to e-learning as our solution manages also pedagogical material for presential. The e-doceo solution is global and genuinely focused on the pedagogical efficiency of blended learning paths.

Regarding your question on the LMS, I would not put it this way and say it is the key element, but it is for sure a vital component. It is indeed impossible to implement an efficient e-learning strategy without an LMS: in this regard, it holds a capital role. One needs to mind the fact that the LMS platform is also an empty repository to be supplied with content! This is why it is important to be thinking further than just the LMS features perimeter in an e-learning project. E-learning is a value chain based on creation, management and publishing of training digital materials.

bsoco : How do you see e-learning developing in the coming years?

Jérôme Bruet : E-learning is far from its cruising speed. Even if it is today part of the culture of training managers, who are aware of the benefits it provides their companies, its use is still low if compared to presential. But more than e-learning, it is the digitalization of knowledge that will hit its stride in the coming years. The entire training area and consequently all types of training resources will go through the same experience as many documents of our daily life (media, bills, etc.): they will move to the digital hour. Integrate interactivity and collaborative work, centralize and secure training resources, index and publish pedagogical material whether it is for presential or distance learning, this is where stands the real needs of the companies to meet the optimization of their human asset.

In e-learning, innovations are numerous, for both production features as well as publishing ones.
It is not always easy for a company to guess whether an innovation is really going to prove efficient. And consequently, select its software according to it.

bsoco : Which advice would you address a person who wishes to acquire e-learning software?

Jérôme Bruet : The software is there to serve a project and accompany the strategy of the company. It is this strategy that is to be defined in the first place. It is more relevant to answer questions on the benefits of the e-learning project rather than listing the features that should be encompassed in the software your are looking for. Then, you can identify with the publisher or the integrator how the software will enable you to achieve your overall objectives.

We can sum-up e-learning by saying it increases the companies’ reactivity between the identification of training need and the distribution of the corrective action, but also to enhance the annual hourly volume for followed trainings at equal budget perimeter. The question to ask yourselves is whether the IT solution you implement makes you achieve these two objectives.

The right choice to be made is to first acquire a global solution encompassing the latest innovations of the sector. Training should not be parceled out with rapid learning on a side, traditional e-learning on the other and serious game further away. Each feature has to be part of a coherent whole, both on pedagogical and technological levels.

bsoco : According to you, what part has not been mentioned and would demonstrate the impact of software on an e-learning project?

Jérôme Bruet : E-learning goes beyond geographical borders. For international groups, this means being able of managing multilingualism with caution. Similarly, training is for the company in the heart of its know-how. Therefore it is particularly important to question the level of IT security of the solution you will establish. Is it going to meet the demand of your IT management?

Finally, your e-learning software will have to be able to satisfy the pedagogue using it and the CIO administering it: a great skill only a few publishers master.